“Crackle!”
The two Electric Eels easily spotted the rapidly ascending adventuring party and swam toward them, discharging electricity as they came.
Blue-violet arcs of electricity danced around the two eels, as if clothing them in armor of raw lightning.
It exuded a deadly aura that made the party's hearts sink.
“Keep swimming up! I'll buy us time with magic!” Li Xiuman called out quickly.
“Tier 2 Magic—Water Prison!”
A blue magic circle expanded at the tip of his wand. Under Li Xiuman's control, torrents of water darted toward the two Electric Eels like thick water pythons.
Writhing their bodies, the water pythons wrapped tightly around the eels loop after loop, continuously constricting until they formed water prisons.
This exquisite demonstration of magical manipulation left everyone marveling in awe.
As expected of Miss Xiuman! Among all the Tier 2 Elementalists I've seen, no one comes close to you!
I, Brad, am willing to call you the strongest!
However, a Tier 2 spell was ultimately just a Tier 2 spell. No matter how masterful the technique, its upper limit was fixed.
The two Electric Eels squirmed, their blue-violet electrical arcs fusing into a chain of lightning that sizzled and crackled through the surrounding water.
Before long, the water prisons were churning and boiling from the electrical charge, on the verge of bursting apart.
Li Xiuman rapidly raised his wand and, after a hasty incantation (mostly just for show)—
“Tier 1 Magic—Water Burst!”
“Thump! Thump!”
With two dull thuds, the water prisons surrounding the Electric Eels suddenly imploded before detonating outward.
The blast rattled the head of each majestic eel, causing them to stall on the spot.
However, the Electric Eels snapped out of it almost immediately. Erupting with even fiercer arcs of electricity, they surged toward the group once more.
It seemed they were furious.
What cute little creatures. Getting this mad after just a tiny bit of teasing.
“Tier 2 Magic—Storm Rock Spear!”
A magic circle glowing blue-green and yellow expanded. A massive rock spear rapidly condensed in front of the wand and, propelled by wind magic, began to spin at incredible speed.
The surrounding currents were swept up, forming a swirling whirlpool.
...
Everyone's eyelids twitched, none of them daring to utter a word.
Miss Xiuman's spell seems a little... overly overpowered.
“Go!”
With a tremble of the wand, the massive, spinning rock spear shot forth like a missile, tearing through the water straight toward the aggressive Electric Eels.
The Electric Eels likely hadn't anticipated this either—that the creatures before them possessed such a devastating attack.
Caught off guard, they could only blast massive pillars of electricity to intercept the incoming rock spear.
“Boom!”
A circular shockwave thundered underwater, sweeping outward across an unknown distance.
The shockwave hit the ascending party from below, propelling them a good distance closer to the surface.
The Electric Eels did not pursue further, though whether they had been injured by Miss Xiuman's strike remained unclear.
Brad and the others picked up their swimming pace.
Li Xiuman glanced back at the site of the explosion and stealthily deployed Number Zero.
Number Zero was equipped with Crystal Orchid as well.
Li Xiuman was quite covetous of the Electric Eel's electrical attacks.
Besides, since these were rare monsters, who knew if he would ever encounter them again if he missed this chance?
It was a now-or-never opportunity.
Li Xiuman was determined to obtain that rare electrical discharge skill.
However, electric eels had no limbs. How was he supposed to transplant their bones to gain the skill?
He wondered if he could use Bone Manipulation to reshape the eel's bones into limbs before attaching them.
The party continued swimming upward, and the light shining down from above grew brighter and brighter.
Finally, amid a dazzling glow, everyone broke through the surface of the water.
Feeling the long-absent natural air, everyone inhaled deeply.
Li Xiuman also saw the source of the light.
It was a massive crystal dome overhead, emitting a brilliant white light that illuminated the entire cavernous body of water.
“Look over there!”
Brad pointed toward a direction across the water.
Everyone looked in the direction he pointed and saw a small “island” protruding above the water.
It appeared to be the only piece of “land” in the area.
“Let's go take a look! The Spirit Spring is very likely on that island.”
Brad seemed unable to contain his eagerness.
It seemed that after searching for so long, finally coming across a location that very likely harbored the Spirit Spring had filled him with excitement.
If Brad discovered there was no Spirit Spring up there, his reaction would surely be priceless.
Li Xiuman was actually looking forward to seeing that expression on Brad's face.
“Tier 1 Magic—Mass Water Walking.”
Li Xiuman raised his wand, and the opening magic circle enveloped the party.
A layer of blue water veil formed under everyone's feet, allowing them to stand firmly on top of the water.
Then, they began sprinting toward the island.
Occasional attacks from monsters below the surface added a blind-box kind of thrill to the trek.
When they reached the island, Brad couldn't wait to start searching, but Li Xiuman stopped him.
“Hold on. Have you forgotten the lesson from earlier?”
“Sorry, I was too impatient.”
Brad scratched his head, looking embarrassed for losing his composure in front of the beautiful, intelligent, wise, powerful, and gentle Miss Xiuman.
Seeing that expression made Li Xiuman grit his teeth again.
After tying a steel cable around Brad's waist, Brad stepped onto the island.
After walking a circle around it and confirming there was no immediate danger, the rest of the party stepped onto the island one by one.
Unsurprisingly, the entire island was made completely of crystal.
It matched the description in 《The Crystal Hero's Dragon-Slaying Epic》 perfectly.
After wandering around the crystal island, the party found only a single massive pillar at its center.
The surface of the pillar was rugged and steep, extending all the way up to connect with the glittering dome overhead.
“This is it! The Spirit Spring must be on top of this pillar!”
Brad's eyes shone brightly as he looked up toward the top of the pillar.
Li Xiuman had no idea why he was so certain.
His face wore an expression of absolute, unshakeable confidence in his own deduction.
“Alright then, let's climb up!”
Brad was the first to scale the crystal pillar. The rugged surface provided plenty of handholds, allowing them to climb a considerable distance without much effort.
Ascending steadily, they finally reached the top of the crystal pillar.
Looking down from here offered an unobstructed view of the island and the entire underground body of water.
Once everyone was standing atop the pillar, it seemed to trigger something, bursting into a brilliant glow.
Then, waves suddenly rippled across the water in the distance.
A tiny island emerged, parting the water as it rose to the surface.
The radiance from the dome transformed into specks of light that drifted down toward the top of the crystal pillar, coalescing into a bridge of light extending toward the miniature island.
It was dreamlike and mesmerizing.
“Could that be where the Spirit Spring actually is?”
“Rumble!”
The entire surface of the water began to churn violently.
A massive horde of monsters broke through the water, glaring menacingly up at the party.
At the same time, the crystal pillar beneath their feet began fracturing inch by inch, and swarms of winged monsters burst out from the cracks.
Having lost their footing, the group had no choice but to step onto the bridge of light.
“Roar!”
The instant they stepped onto the light bridge, the roars of every monster merged into a deafening chorus as they launched an attack without hesitation.
The vast swarm of flying monsters nearly filled every inch of space surrounding the bridge of light.
Rate on N.U.
